Pages

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Week Three with Joy The Baker - Cheddar, Chive and Jalepeno Biscuits

Most of the time I adapt to cooking for just the two of us. When our son was in residence I could make a big lasagna and it would last two nights. Perfect. Now – we are faced with eating it longer than we’d like or freezing a huge portion. (By the way, freezing portions works a charm for those weeks when you are about out of money and the pantry needs restocking. Thaw and bake!)

Biscuits....with cheddar and fresh chives

Joy the Baker’s recipe for cheddar, chive and jalapeno biscuits will make roughly a dozen + biscuits. That can not be allowed here or else…..we’ll eat them all. Bad idea. So, I modified this recipe and cut back portions to make 6 fat biscuits. Four at dinner and I have two to go along with lunch today. Perfect, right?

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt.
In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and egg.
Toss together the cheddar cheese, jalapeno, and chives. Set aside.

Freshly chopped chives and slivers of cheddar

Add butter to the flour mixture. With your fingers or a pastry blender, work the butter into the flour, breaking the small cubes into smaller bits. Once the butter is well incorporated into the flour mixture, the flour will resemble coarse meal. Some chunks will be the size of small pebbles, others will be the size of oat flakes.

Toss the cheese mixture into the flour mixture. Create a small well in the center of the flour mixture and add the buttermilk mixture all at once. Toss together with a fork making sure that all of the flour bits are moistened by the buttermilk. Mixture will be shaggy. Dump the biscuit dough onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 8-10 minutes, just to bring it together into a 1 1/2" circle.

NOTE: Someone just called to my attention that the recipe calls for kneading the dough 8 minutes (this is also in the Joy the Baker instructions) and in fact, that was too much time to knead the dough. So...knead less!

Dough

Cut biscuits into squares or use a 2 1/2" circle biscuit cutter to cut into rounds. If you don't have a round biscuit cutter, you can use a knife to cut the dough into 12 small squares.

Slice it up and form biscuits

Gather dough scraps, knead lightly, and cut out more biscuits until batter is gone. Place biscuits on prepared baking sheets, brush with buttermilk, sprinkle with sea salt and bake for 12-15 minutes.

*This post is part of the Joy the Baker Cookbook Spotlight and Cook-Off sponsored by Hyperion and hosted at girlichef.

I'm also including this for BYOB (Bake Your Own Bread)series. Homemade biscuits...doesn't get any better :-)

Did you notice the mistake in the recipe? Joy wrote it, and you reported it as kneading for 8-10 minutes - that would produce a hockey puck rather than a biscuit. I take it you didn't kneed it for that long, but you might want to amend the recipe for people who are less experienced.

This is my go to biscuit recipe, it even works without the cheese and chives. One note about cutting biscuits...if you cut them into rounds you get sharp cut sides that allow the biscuits to rise more. You can use a drinking glass (turned up side down) to shape if needed, you will be amazed at the height and flake you will get if the biscuit is allowed to rise.